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    Being a professional

    today means becoming

    interprofessional

    Dr. Hans Schuman

    Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration

    Tilburg, 5 februari 2010

    1

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    Hans Schuman

    Fontys OSO

    Heliomare EducationWEC Council

    [email protected]

    Copyright [2010] Fontys Hogescholen

    Alle rechten voorbehouden. Niets van deze uitgave mag worden verveelvoudigd, opgeslagen in een geautomatiseerd gegevens-

    bestand, of openbaar gemaakt, in enige vorm of op enige wijze, hetzij elektronisch, mechanisch, door fotokopien, opname of op

    enige andere manier, zonder vooraf schriftelijke toestemming van de uitgever: Fontys Hogescholen.

    Voorzover het maken van kopien uit deze uitgave is toegestaan op grond van artikel 16b en 17 Auteurswet 1912 dient men de

    daarvoor wettelijk vergoeding te voldoen aan de Stichting Reprorecht, postbus 882, 1180 AW Amstelveen. Voor het overnemen

    van n of enkele gedeelte(n) uit deze uitgave in bloemlezingen, readers of andere compilatiewerken dient men zich tot de uit-

    gever te wenden.

    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by

    any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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    The philosophers have only interpretedthe world in various ways. The point

    however is to change it.

    Epitaph Karl Marx, Highgate Cemetery,London.

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    Contents

    Chapter 1: The Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and

    Interagency Collaboration 7Introduction 7

    The Research Group 9

    The Lectorate 10

    Chapter 2: The Importance of Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and

    Interagency Collaboration 13

    Introduction 13

    Multidisciplinary and Interdisciplinary Collaboration 14

    A Challenge for Higher Professional Education 15

    A Common Language 16

    Support 17

    Chapter 3: The Research Programme 21

    Introduction 21

    Method of Working 22Collective Ambitions 23

    Ambitions of Fontys OSO 23

    Ambitions of the Helioskoop Foundation 23

    Ambitions of Heliomare Research and Development 24

    Ambitions of the WEC Council 24

    Ambitions of the Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and

    Interagency Collaboration 24

    Chapter 4: Practice-oriented Research 27

    Introduction 27

    Practice-oriented Research 28

    Dialogue with the Work Field 29

    The Rise of a New Professionalism 30

    Focus on the Implementation Process 31

    Quality of Practice-oriented Research 32

    References 35

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    Chapter 1

    The Lectorate in Inter-

    professional, Interdisciplinaryand Interagency Collaboration

    Introduction

    The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the Netherlands Association

    of Universities of Applied Sciences introduced lectorateto the Dutch universities

    of applied sciences in 2001. A lector has specific expertise in a particular field of

    study. An important of a lectorate is the research group (in Dutch: kenniskring).

    A research group is always made up of a number of lecturers at a university of

    applied sciences; some research groups also include staff of external partners.

    The members of the research group have multiple roles in the areas of teaching,

    research, consultancy and training. Lectorates have a supporting role in knowledge

    innovation in higher professional education. Practice-oriented research is a core

    task of all lectorates.

    The Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration

    came about as a result of a special collaboration between Fontys OSO, a post-

    graduate teacher training college offering Masters courses in Special Educational

    Needs, Heliomare Education which provides special education services and the

    WEC Council (Council for Expertise Centres) (see Figure 1 Collaborating Partners).

    Fontys OSO and its partner organisations have agreed the research domain to

    be studied and the capacity and resources that will be made available for this

    purpose.The partners are committed to working together for a period of four

    years. Administrative coordination between the partner organisations takes place

    twice a year.

    Fontys OSO is theexpertise centre in the Netherlands in the field of specialist

    professional development for education professionals working with pupils with

    special needs. It is the ambition of Fontys OSO to facilitate life-long learning for

    all education professionals by working with them. To this end it offers a Masters

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    Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration

    course in Special Educational Needs which students can study either full time orpart time; it organises study days and conferences; it offers tailor-made courses

    and services in school development among other fields; and its four lectoratescarry out practice-oriented research.

    HeliomareEducation

    LectoratesFontys

    Universityof Applied

    Sciences(UoASc)

    Peripatetic

    Supervision

    Masterstudents

    HelioskooplectoratesFontysOSO

    de Zevensprong

    HelioskoopFoundation

    de Alk

    de Ruimte

    WEC Council

    Fontys OSO

    Lectorate

    Research

    Group

    HeliomareR&D

    Figure 1 Collaborating Partners

    The Helioskoop Foundation, which Heliomare Education is part of, comprises

    schools that offer education, support and guidance to children and young people

    with physical, learning or multiple disabilities, ranging in age from 4 to 20 years.

    As well as Heliomare Education, the Helioskoop Foundation comprises de Alk(a

    school for students aged 4-20 with severe learning disabilities in Alkmaar), de

    Zevensprong(a school for students with severe learning disabilities in Beverwijk),

    de Ruimte(a school for physically disabled students in Bergen) and an organisation

    providing peripatetic supervision.The Research and Development Department of

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    The Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration

    Heliomare is also collaborating with the lectorate.

    The WEC Council is an association that promotes the interests of special

    education. It formulates strategic policy, promotes the interests of special schoolsand encourages special schools and the peripatetic supervision service to deliver

    top quality services.

    The lectorate has agreed with its partners to undertake practice-oriented

    research that will contribute to the construction, sharing and dissemination of

    knowledge relating to the research domain interprofessional, interdisciplinary

    and interagency collaboration. The partners working together within this

    research domain have distinguished three fields on which the practice-oriented

    research should be focused:

    peripatetic supervision;

    support and guidance for students who exhibit challenging behaviour and

    who have moderate or severe learning disabilities; and

    transition of students with physical, and sometimes multiple, disabilities to

    various modes of living, working, leisure time and participation in society.

    The concept of interprofessional and interdisciplinary collaboration refers mainlyto the work of professionals. It should not be forgotten that the purpose of this

    research work is always to support students and their parents or carers. This

    support is directed towards the emancipation, participation and empowerment

    of the individuals involved so that they become strong and knowledgeable

    enough to take more and more responsibility for the choices that are made and

    the associated decision-making process (Callahan and Bradley Garner, 1997). The

    concept of support is increasingly taking centre stage in place of the concept of

    care (van Gennep, 2000). I will return to that in Chapter 2.

    The Research Group

    The research group comprises 10 members: three from Fontys OSO, six from

    the Helioskoop Foundation and one from Heliomare Rehabilitation. All members

    of the research group devote one day a week to practice-oriented research and

    participating in other activities for the lectorate. Smaller research groups have

    been formed for each subfield in which one research group member from Fontys

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    Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration

    OSO works with at least two employees of the Helioskoop Foundation. Membersof the research group were selected for their knowledge and experience with

    the research domain and one or more of the three subfields. It was also essentialthat they aspired to do practice-oriented research within the frame of reference

    of the lectorate.

    The research group is making a contribution through practice-oriented research

    (see Chapter 4) to improving the quality of the Masters Special Educational Needs

    courses at Fontys OSO and of professional practice in the Helioskoop Foundation

    schools. The research group aims in this way to contribute to strengthening

    the position of children and young people with physical or other disabilities

    in the education system and in wider society. Members of the research group

    work closely with colleagues who teach on the Masters Special Educational

    Needs courses at Fontys OSO and with professional practitioners working for the

    Helioskoop Foundation. They also use their existing networks, which they expand

    with relevant new contacts where this adds value to their work as practice-

    oriented researchers in the lectorate. The research group takes information,

    inspiration and encouragement from current social and other developments for

    the benefit of its research and other work, as well as from relevant scientific andpractice-oriented research of colleagues and other institutions, not only in the

    Netherlands but also abroad. Members of the research group have a duty to

    publicise their research findings, both to the general public and to professionals

    in higher professional education, schools and special schools, care and social

    services, through for instance presentations and publications. Important themes

    underpinning the day-to-day work of the research group are: innovation;

    professional development; knowledge-construction, sharing and dissemination;

    empowerment and diversity.

    The Lectorate

    The Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration

    can be seen as the practical implementation by Fontys OSO, Heliomare Education

    and the WEC Council of a number of recommendations formulated by the Dutch

    Education Council with a view to strengthening cooperation between knowledge

    organisations. The recommendations are:

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    The Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration

    Education practitioners should be recognised as co-constructors of knowledge.

    Knowledge communities should be developed in which constructors of

    knowledge, intermediaries and education practitioners collaborate.Knowledge management of and by schools should be encouraged, partly

    through facilities for incumbent and student teachers who aspire to develop

    into internal knowledge-constructors in their own schools.

    When constructing knowledge there should be more focus on implementation

    through more detailed operationalisation of the current requirements on

    the practical relevance of academic research.

    There should be more recognition for Dutch-language publications

    (Education Council, 2003, pp.13-14).

    This lectorate aspires to be a knowledge community as envisaged by the Education

    Council (see Figure 2 The Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and

    Interagency Collaboration as a knowledge community).

    Figure 2: The Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration as a knowledge community

    Overigewerkveld

    WEC Raad

    Overige HBO enUniversitair Onderwijs

    Kenniskring

    Interdisciplinair

    werken

    Lectoraat

    Interdisciplinairwerken

    Fontys HBOFontys OSO

    Lectoraten Fontys OSO

    WerkveldHelioskoop enHeliomare R&D

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    Chapter 2

    The Importance of Inter-

    professional, Interdisciplinaryand Interagency Collaboration

    Introduction

    Rotmans warned that

    from a social perspective our society has a number of stubborn problems

    (sometimes called wicked problems) for which no ready-made solutions

    exist, but for which a new kind of knowledge needs to be developed.

    Problems to do with water supply, climate change, health care, mobility,

    employment, migration, energy supply and agriculture cannot be tackled

    or solved with recourse to a single scientific discipline. Problems like this

    demand a broad, multi- and interdisciplinary approach.

    (Rotmans, 2009).

    This statement would seem to also apply without qualification to the complex

    problems that children and young people with moderate and severe functional

    limitations come across in their daily lives when they want to use education,

    medical or social services. It is virtually automatic that they have to deal with

    a number of professionals from different disciplines. The same applies to

    their parents or carers. These professionals use discipline-specific procedures,

    protocols, interventions and methods and they use jargon specifically developed

    for their own field. For the students and their parents or carers, it cannot be

    taken for granted that they will be able to take control, experience ownership

    and participate in the decision-making in such an environment. This is often the

    case for the education and other professionals involved too. The main question

    for the professionals would seem to be:

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    Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration

    How can the different professionals from the divergent positions of their different disciplinesconverge to support students and their parents or carers, on the basis of a common language

    and common objectives?

    Multidisciplinary and Interdisciplinary Collaboration

    Two concepts are used to describe collaboration of professionals from different

    disciplines: multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary collaboration. Multidisciplinary

    collaboration assumes a form of collaboration between professionals from

    different disciplines that is primarily geared to sharing knowledge. Interdisciplinary

    collaboration assumes that the collaborating professionals are willing and able

    to integrate the knowledge contributed from the separate disciplines, allowing

    new knowledge and innovative approaches to be developed to solve a particular

    problem more adequately and effectively (Buntinx and Bijwaard, 2004).

    Interdisciplinary collaboration assumes an approach that involves more dialogue,

    first and foremost with the person to whom the support is directed and his/her

    social environment. Their support needs are mainly characterised by

    the individual nature of client issues, the matching dialogue betweenclient and professional, and the offering of professional care and support

    geared to the clients quality of life.

    (Buntinx and Bijwaard, 2004, p.5).

    The professionalism needed for this role, according to the VGN, the sector

    organisation for care and social services for disabled people, has the following

    characteristics:

    It rests on evidence-based knowledge acquired through formal and

    comprehensive training, which includes training in practice-oriented

    skills (training on the job).

    It takes place within frameworks, such as standards for good practice,

    professional codes, professional profiles, protocols and rules (including

    complaints handling schemes) specified by the profession, sector and/

    or the government.

    It is characterised by reflection, systemisation of experience, peer

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    The Importance of Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration

    review and support, in-service training and the pursuit of quality

    improvement.

    It has its own autonomy and responsibilities.

    It is practised for payment as a rule (Idem, pp.9).

    To this can be added that this new professionalism takes shape within a sphere of

    sometimes conflicting interests and an unequal power structure (Oliver, 1996).

    There has long been discussion and much has been written about the importance

    of interdisciplinary collaboration for the client, but achieving, implementing

    and maintaining it seems to be more difficult (Mitchell and Crittenden, 2000).

    Clients need for professionals from various disciplines to collaborate more

    and more effectively only seems to increase. The amount of knowledge being

    constructed, not only in research universities and universities of applied sciences,

    but increasingly in the schools and institutions themselves, is rising exponentially.

    This is the case for a number of specialisms (Kahn and Prager, 1994). It should be

    seen as a positive development, from the perspective of improving the quality of

    support, guidance and social services. At the same time there is an increased riskthat the teaching and support given on the basis of this constructed knowledge

    and experience gained will be fragmented and inconsistent, undermining the

    capacity of the students and their parents or carers to exercise control. From the

    perspective of the students well-being and quality of life, this is not a desirable

    situation.

    A Challenge for Higher Professional Education

    Higher professional education in particular seems to be able to fulfil a key role

    in equipping professionals to be able to function effectively in a multidisciplinary

    context, which increasingly calls for interprofessional, interdisciplinary and

    interinstitutional collaboration. Research universities mainly focus on the separate

    disciplines, although there too interdisciplinary collaboration and interdisciplinary

    research are becoming increasingly important. Specialisation is necessary, but so

    is interdisciplinary collaboration. Higher professional education could develop

    examples of good practice and the competences to go with that and then

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    Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration

    translate these to its Masters courses, other courses and contractual activities.

    The competences that professionals need to collaborate effectively and efficientlyinclude: being willing to leave their own territory; wanting to discover new

    knowledge and experiential domains; learning to master a different language;

    being willing and able to accommodate different perspectives; being willing

    and able to accommodate anothers expertise; and being able to recognise and

    appreciate the others expertise as complementary and enriching (Kaye and

    Crittenden, 2005). It seems to be largely a matter of having a certain professional

    attitude and ethos which places particular emphasis on cooperation. We believe

    that this kind of attitude is a distinguishing feature of the Professional Masters

    Programme in Special Educational Needs, which also requires students to identify

    and acknowledge the scope and limits of their own professionalism and then to

    act on that (Ibid.). There is a clear link here with the Lectorate in Professional

    Values in Critical Dialogue headed by Dr. Gaby Jacobs.

    A Common Language

    Learning to use a different language seems to be a condition for interdisciplinarycollaboration. In order to offer effective education to pupils with functional

    limitations (some of them complex), linked to good support and services from

    other disciplines, it is essential that one professional understands what another

    is talking about. Only then will one professional be able to connect his/her own

    contribution to fellow professionals contributions, to produce an integrated

    support programme for the student. This common language is also important

    for the dialogue between students and their parents/carers on one side and the

    professionals on the other side. The International Classification of Functioning,

    Disability and Health Children and Youth (ICF-CY) could serve as the framework

    for this (RIVM, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment,

    2008). Heliomare Rehabilitation, for instance, is already using this. The ICF-CY

    starts with a clear vision, that is widely shared and supported internationally,

    for the support of, for instance, people with severe functional limitations.

    The ICF-CY uses the English term disability. This word has no equivalent in

    Dutch. The word handicap especially evokes negative connotations, at least in

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    The Importance of Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration

    international circles. That is why the VGN proposed using serious limitations in

    functioning and people with disabilities (Buntinx and Bijwaard, 2004, pp.10).

    These functional limitations are usually complex, because they affect severalaspects of functioning, are long-term in nature, highly individual, and because

    they lead to a certain dependence on special support (Ibid.).

    The ICF-CY offers a model with which complex problems of people with

    disabilities can be described and understood (Buntinx, 2007, pp. 11). The ICF-CY

    champions a common language for all disciplines involved in the support and

    guidance of students and their parents or carers. The point of departure for

    this language is the everyday activities of a person with a moderate or severe

    functional limitation. The purpose of the common language is to develop a

    shared and consistent, supportive climate and system that is interdisciplinary,

    thereby increasing the chance that barriers hindering or preventing the person

    from participating in an inclusive society can be broken down. A supportive

    climate like this, where communication with all stakeholders takes place in a

    comprehensible language, would also seem to be more accessible to the disabled

    person and his/her support network. This probably makes it easier for her /himto exercise control. On that basis it appears possible to develop educational

    and support practices which are in line with the UN Declaration of December

    2006, which stresses the right of people with a disability (including children

    and young people) to be actively involved in all decisions that affect them (UN,

    2006). The needs of the client and the outcomes of the collaboration in the

    sense of improved quality of life could be important benchmarks in this process.

    Buntinx and van Gennep (2007, pp. 8) argue in this context for restoration of

    the credibility of the orientation on a transcendent value, namely the welfare

    of the client in professionals actions. Practice-oriented and practice-relevant

    research as part of the training offered by Fontys OSO and this lectorate should

    also be engaged with this theme: What is it exactly, the welfare of the client, and

    how might professionals limit it through their actions, or indeed enhance it?

    Support

    Slowly but surely over the past few decades the deficit approach which stressed

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    The Importance of Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration

    organisations can therefore engage with other general or specialist

    organisations (such as local authorities, businesses, GPs) with a view to

    improving the functioning and quality of life of the disabled person.Support takes individual and changing circumstances into consideration,

    remains flexible and is offered with varying intensity. The persons self-

    determination is respected and his /her opportunities to make choices

    fostered.

    The consequences for professionals of the new thinking on support are that

    their actions cannot be seen as isolated (within the walls of the treatment

    room or institution) and fragmented activities (confined to their own

    discipline), but in partnership with other people involved (professionals and

    non-professionals) they should address the quality of life of the disabled

    person (Buntinx and Bijwaard, 2004, pp.10-11). The daily experience of

    disabled people shows that this orientation still cannot be taken for

    granted.

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    Chapter 3

    The Research Programme

    Introduction

    A relevant, sustainable and transparent research plan for this lectorate will

    be produced in close consultation and through agreement with collaborating

    partners. Much practice-oriented research is characterised by an emergent design.

    This also seems to offer a good model for the development of this lectorate:

    everything is not fixed from the outset and there is scope for contributions

    from all members of the research group and participating partners, within the

    frameworks they have drawn up. The other three lectorates at Fontys OSO are

    both complementary and supporting:

    the Lectorate in Internationalisation and Inclusive Education headed by Dr.

    Chris Lloyd;

    the Lectorate in Evaluative Performance headed by Dr. Anita Blonk;the Lectorate in Professional Values in Critical Dialogue headed by Dr. Gaby

    Jacobs.

    The lectorate will also develop a very close partnership with the Research

    and Development Department of Heliomare, with the aim of improving

    and strengthening the support and guidance offered to students from an

    interdisciplinary perspective. This interdisciplinary perspective assumes that

    everyone involved will develop an interprofessional working ethos and so it is

    emphatically linked to personal meaning-making, commitment and motivation

    (Meads and Ashcroft, 2005). Structures are concerned with what, when, by

    whom and where; personal meaning-making by professionals starts with why

    and what for, so it covers the dimensions of professional practice that are based

    on values (Ibid.). It is becoming ever more important in education, health care

    and social services that methods and interventions used are described properly

    and that current methods of working are based on the gathering of practice-

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    Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration

    oriented evidence. There is an opportunity here for the schools belonging to theHelioskoop Foundation to achieve educational practices that are evidence-based

    in a number of essential areas (van Yperen and Veerman, 2008).

    As well as conducting practice-oriented research, the lectorate will prioritise

    participation in relevant regional, national and international research and other

    networks. We will also collaborate closely and coordinate our activities with

    teaching staff on the Fontys OSO Masters courses. With support from the WEC

    Council and in dialogue with our partners, the research findings will be evaluated

    for their relevance to other organisations for special and mainstream education

    and rehabilitation. For the Helioskoop students, for instance, the research

    projects and implementation of findings could contribute to their increasing

    social participation and inclusion.

    Method of Working

    The research programme of the Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary

    and Interagency Collaboration will be finalised therefore in close collaboration

    with all of the partners and members of the research group who are involved.Questions and practical problems in the education and guidance practice of the

    participating schools which require clarification, intervention, development or

    change will be identified by the people involved, through a process of dialogue

    oriented on practice, as bumpy moments or critical professional situations. In

    the same way, that is by approaching Fontys OSO teaching staff through their

    team leaders, use will be made of their expertise, knowledge, and experience

    gained (for example, from teaching on the Masters courses, supporting schools

    and supervising their students practice-oriented research) for the design and

    development of the research programme. With the education professionals of

    the partner organisations who are taking Masters in Special Educational Needs

    at Fontys OSO and with the teaching staff supervising their practice-oriented

    research, we will investigate whether, and if so how, their research activities

    could benefit the activities of the lectorate and vice versa, and whether they could

    be integrated. In other words the approach we have chosen aims to develop the

    research programme from the questions and problems that emerge from the

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    The Research Programme

    educational practice of the various partner organisations and to connect the

    development of theory and practice. This method of working seems to be the

    most suitable approach to achieve the objectives formulated for lectorates inhigher professional education (SKO, foundation for knowledge-construction in

    higher professional education, 2008):

    knowledge-construction;

    teachers professional development

    implementation in curricula; and

    dissemination of knowledge to and from the economy and society.

    Collective Ambitions

    Ambitions of Fontys OSO

    To integrate training, research and organisational development through

    interactive forms of construction, sharing and safeguarding of knowledge with

    all relevant stakeholders. This includes:

    Testing, developing and disseminating knowledge that is relevant to practice

    and forms of knowledge-construction for special education, where teacher

    educators and students work closely with the partner schools which have aformal and ongoing association with the lectorate.

    Making a contribution to the further development of a framework of

    educational theory and teaching methods specific to special education for

    the Masters in Special Educational Needs course.

    Connecting the individual development of teacher educators, students and

    professionals in the partner organisations and the development of Fontys

    OSO as a training organisation in the special education sector.

    The four lectorates of Fontys OSO will work closely together to enable these

    ambitions to be realised.

    Ambitions of the Helioskoop Foundation

    To develop its employees professional skills by doing practice-oriented and

    practice-relevant research.

    To strengthen the teaching and services offered to students, their parentsand external clients.

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    Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration

    To provide a sound basis for its own teaching practices by, among otherthings, establishing how effective its methods, programmes etc. are.

    To develop into a learning organisation where evidence-based practices arean important quality criterion.

    Ambitions of Heliomare Research and Development

    To embed the research being done in Heliomare even more firmly into the

    organisation.

    To further shape and strengthen the social relevance of its research.

    To make the relevance of research to Heliomares students visible.

    To disseminate research findings widely.

    Ambitions of the WEC Council

    To develop good practices, both by developing partnerships between

    higher professional education institutions and education practitioners, and

    in the field of practice-oriented and practice-relevant research by education

    professionals, which is transferable to other organisations.

    Ambitions of the Lectorate in Interprofessional,

    Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration

    For this lectorate the ambitions outlined above mean:

    Systematic knowledge-construction through our own long-term research

    programme in the interdisciplinary collaboration research domain and the

    three subfields (peripatetic supervision, behaviour and learning disability,

    and transition). Questions that could guide the research:

    - What exactly is meant by interdisciplinary collaboration?

    - How do professionals distinguish differences with multidisciplinary

    collaboration?

    - What are the conditions for making a success of interdisciplinary

    collaboration for the client, and for the professionals and organisations

    involved (win-win situation)?

    - How do organisations design interdisciplinary collaboration?

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    The Research Programme

    - What is the relationship between interdisciplinary and inter-institutional

    collaboration?

    - What competences do professionals need to work effectively andefficiently together across different disciplines?

    - How do professionals master these competences?

    Intensive collaboration with the Heliomare Research and Development

    Department.

    Offering the staff of, both Helioskoop and Fontys OSO, an opportunity to

    train themselves to do practice-oriented and practice-relevant research so

    that they can then move on to doing their own research.

    Development of research programmes that are meaningful to a developing

    professional practice, firstly in the schools and services of the Helioskoop

    Foundation, but later also in other education organisations.

    Making a meaningful contribution to the professional development of

    education professionals working for the Helioskoop Foundation and

    teaching staff working for Fontys OSO.

    Making a contribution to developing the curriculum for the Masters courses

    at Fontys OSO.Disseminating examples of good practice, innovative methods of working

    and well-founded interventions through presentations, lectures, publications

    and film material.

    Encouraging all Helioskoop Masters students to specifically incorporate

    interdisciplinary collaboration as an integral aspect of their practice-oriented

    research.

    Strengthening the research potential of the lectorate encouraging Masters

    students from Helioskoop who are studying at Fontys to link their research

    where possible to one of the three subfields is an innovative approach

    that we have adopted. Four research groups can be distinguished among

    the Masters students: peripatetic supervision, behaviour, transition and a

    general research themes group. Both Fontys and Helioskoop stand to gain

    from the proposed method of working because of the amount of data

    that will become available through this collaborative model. This could

    be described as meta-triangulation, because the Masters students gather

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    data using a broad gamut of instruments in the different contexts of theHelioskoop Foundation.

    Encouraging Fontys OSO teaching staff in all Masters Special EducationalNeeds courses to pay more attention to the theme of interdisciplinary

    collaboration: interdisciplinary collaboration presumes interdisciplinary

    training and probably also more and more interdisciplinary research. The

    necessary support to achieve this could come from this lectorate and the

    research group. The educational content for the interdisciplinary collaboration

    theme will take shape over time. This assumes close collaboration between

    Fontys OSO teaching staff and members of the research group, with the

    lector taking a leading role. Fellow students, future students and lecturers

    at Fontys OSO can make use of this, so that the connections and the main

    themes in the lectorate will become visible.

    External partners

    The lectorate will seek out links with one or more research universities.

    The starting point for a potential collaboration will be this lectorates

    research field: interprofessional, interdisciplinary and interagency

    collaboration. Enquiries will be made into the possibility of linking up withthe Supporting Communication research programme of Professor van

    Balkom, who is about to be appointed to the Endowed Chair in Supporting

    Communication at Radboud University. For children and young people with

    a disability, especially children with a communication disability, supporting

    communication is a condition for learning and participation and so we see

    this theme as complementary to the research in our research group

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    Chapter 4

    Practice-oriented Research

    Introduction

    Rotmans, at the time Professor in Integrated Assessment at Maastricht University,

    asked himself this question: What is an innovative university? And the answer

    that he gave: At the very least a university that engages with innovative

    developments in science and society (Rotmans, 2003). The Netherlands

    Association of Universities of Applied Sciences (HBO-Raad) defined bringing about

    connections between science and society and between theory and professional

    practice as a core task for higher professional education (HBO-Raad, 2008). After

    all universities of applied sciences educate professionals who take leading roles

    in key positions in certain professions, where they have to innovate and bring

    about lasting change.

    In addition, stakeholders in education, care and social services (such asinspectorates, financiers, client organisations and parents) increasingly require

    these professionals to be able to explain why use certain methods in their

    professional practice and not others. They are also expected to be able to make

    statements about the effectiveness of their day-to-day practice which are based

    on evidence (van Yperen and Veerman, 2008). The professional practices of

    practitioners who have been educated at higher professional level should, in

    short, be evolving towards more evidence-based practice(Ibid.). This requires a

    different outlook on the part of the professionals on their daily routines (Leijnse,

    Hulst and Vroomans, 2007). This emphasis on improvement and innovation of

    a particular professional practice, by making the professional on the shop floor

    jointly responsible for the evidence on which it is based and for implementation

    of the new practice can take two forms:

    top-down implementation of interventions that have proven effectiveness

    in research settings; and

    bottom-up research into interventions that are being used on a regular basis(van Yperen and Veerman, 2008).

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    Van Yperen and Veerman say of the second approach that it is far less welldeveloped in research andunderutilised in professional practice. The challenge

    is to gather practice-oriented evidence, evidence from the shop floor obtainedthrough research. They call this kind of research practice-driven research into

    effects. The practice, for example the daily work of a teacher in class, is central

    to this and the research instrument is one element among the teachers methods

    and professional practices (Ibid.).

    Practice-oriented Research

    The term practice-driven research could result in too limited an interpretation of

    the way staff in a lectorate in the end decide which themes they will and which, at

    least for the time being, they will not study. That is why in this lectorate we have

    opted for the term practice-oriented research, as defined by the Netherlands

    Association of Universities of Applied Sciences:

    Practice-oriented research . is rooted in professional practice and

    contributes to the improvement of and innovation in that professional

    practice. Knowledge and insights are generated, and useable products,designs and concrete solutions for practical problems are produced. The

    research is usually multi- or transdisciplinary and embedded in a range

    of internal and external organisational associations, while the scientific

    reliability and validity of the research itself is preserved. The research is

    closely linked with the teaching by contributing to teaching activities,

    the professional development of teachers and curriculum reform. As the

    research is relevant to and has an impact on professional practice,

    education and wider society, the knowledge is disseminated and

    published through many different channels and addressed to diverse

    target groups.

    (HBO-Raad, 2008, p. 7).

    This definition makes clear that the task of the lectorate goes much further

    than simply doing research. The lector and members of the research group are

    also responsible for teaching activities, professional development of colleagues,

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    reform of the curriculum, and the construction, sharing and dissemination

    of knowledge, methods of working and products. As far as methodology is

    concerned, there is not necessarily any distinction between practice-orientedresearch and other forms of scientific research, but it does have a different bias

    and different objectives (Ibid.).

    Dialogue with the Work Field

    Those working in the field also expect higher professional education to play

    a more active role in broadening knowledge production and making the links

    between knowledge production and application more flexible (Leijnse, Hulst and

    Vrooman, 2007). An example of this is the recent development of our Masters

    course in Special Educational Needs with its emphasis on students doing practice-

    oriented research. Another example is the co-financing of this lectorate by the

    Helioskoop Foundation and the WEC Council. This trend presents education

    professionals in the twenty-first century and the institutions that are responsible

    for their initial, in-service and further training with the challenge to define

    the professional role of the modern education professional. Leijnse, Hulst and

    Vrooman (2007, p.1) suggest focusing mainly on:reflection on the effectiveness of working methods being used;

    inquisitiveness about knowledge about the profession;

    a bias toward constantly innovating practice; and

    greater involvement in processes of knowledge production and

    application.

    This way of thinking is in keeping with international developments in recent

    decades which describe the education professional as a critically reflective

    practitioner (Carr and Kemmis, 1986), the teacher as researcher (Stenhouse,

    1975), and the teacher as change agent. The notion of teachers as jointly

    responsible for educational reform, change agents therefore, goes back even to

    Dewey (Cobb, 2001). The education of teachers would seem for these reasons

    to be ready for a reappraisal, in which:

    increasingly training courses can no longer confine themselves to

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    offering an initial qualification in the profession, they also have to play arole in initiating a life-long learning process that the new professionalism

    demands. It is partly because of this that there has been a shift in thecontent of initial professional training courses toward more reflective

    skills, inquisitiveness about knowledge, and the capacity to acquire

    knowledge in a systematic way (to do research) and to apply it

    (Leijnse, Hulst and Vrooman, 2007, p. 1).

    The Rise of a New Professionalism

    An important aspect of the new professionalism, namely its systematic bias

    toward evidence-based innovation of ones own professional practice, has

    definitely placed practice-oriented research by professionals on the agenda of

    higher professional education. Seven of the ten members of the research group in

    the Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration

    come from professional practice, working for the Helioskoop foundation. Their

    participation in the research group is in line with a trend in higher professional

    education to encourage education professionals to acquire research competences

    and competences for managing change (Gerrickhauzen, 2007). More specifically,Fontys OSO has developed this into a Masters in Special Educational Needs, in

    which emphasis is placed on interactive forms of knowledge-construction and

    interactive professionalism. Teachers are increasingly expected to be able to

    resolve routine and less common problems in their professional practice using

    well-founded systematic and methodical approaches (Ibid.). This assumes that

    they have top practice-oriented research skills and that they are able to use

    knowledge from educational sciences and related disciplines to think up and test

    out solutions (Ibid., p. 22).

    In the learning and research curriculum of the Masters in Special Educational Needs

    course at Fontys OSO, the main focus is on equipping education professionals

    to master this new professionalism and the research and other competences

    that go with it. For that reason the practice-oriented research forming part of

    the Masters courses is directed at knowledge that a particular profession will

    be able to use; it arises out of professional and social needs; it is directed at

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    professional development and innovation in professional practice; and it meets

    accepted international methodological standards. This lectorate, together with

    the other three lectorates at Fontys OSO, will actively work to help to realise thisambition.

    Focus on the Implementation Process

    The greatest challenge for practice-oriented research probably lies in the area of

    its relevance to practice, that is the potential impact the research could have on

    improving and reforming professional practice. This demands, as indicated earlier,

    that explicit attention be paid to the implementation process (Education Council,

    2003). One of the things that the literature on improvement and innovation in

    education (for example, Evans, 1996; Senge et al., 2000; Pring, 2000; and Fullan,

    2001) teaches us is that when changing established practice in education:

    above all it is about teachers thinking, acting and cooperating among

    themselves and with other professionals, in other words, interdisciplinary

    collaboration;

    all education practice is characterised by complexity, dynamism and a

    context-specific design;the direction of the reform or change is increasingly related to research

    outcomes, but that empirical-analytical research is not sufficient in itself,

    precisely because of the context-specific nature of education; and

    not taking the specific context into account could well lead to the change

    or innovation failing.

    Rotmans (2003) therefore argued that researchers should participate in social

    networks more than they do now, in which knowledge is constructed in

    co-production with other actors in the social field. The collaboration between

    Fontys OSO, the Helioskoop Foundation and the WEC Council in the Lectorate

    in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration could

    serve as an excellent case study of how this kind of collaboration develops in

    practice and what results it delivers. The participation in the research group of

    practitioners from the Helioskoop schools and Heliomare Rehabilitation andtheir

    ties with everyday professional practice could support the implementation of

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    new activities, procedures and methods through a bottom-up process, therebyreducing the risk of failure.

    Quality of Practice-oriented Research

    The excellence of the practice-oriented research of this lectorate will therefore

    mainly be measured against the relevance and impact of the research in

    professional practice, education and society as a whole (HBO-Raad, 2008, p. 7).

    The same report also makes this point:

    evaluation of research from these perspectives is still pretty well in its

    infancy for that matter everywhere else in the world. The emphasis in

    quality systems elsewhere (for example in English, Australian and Dutch

    universities) has up to now always been mainly on the quality of the

    research in the sense of its scientific and academic impact. That impact

    has traditionally been mainly measured in terms of publications, citations

    and peer reviews. People working in these systems and countries have

    meanwhile been looking for indicators and evaluation methods that place

    the significance and impact of the research in a broader perspective. TheNetherlands is reasonably well in front in this (Ibid.).

    The practice-oriented research of the Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary

    and Interagency Collaboration will in any case focus on:

    current teaching and guidance practices of the partners who are collaborating

    in the Helioskoop Foundation;

    gathering practice-oriented evidence on the participating schools and from

    the organisation providing peripatetic supervision;

    describing the methods and interventions that are used in the day-to-day

    teaching and guidance practices of the partner organisations;

    theoretical underpinning of these methods and interventions, for instance

    through a literature review;

    developing and implementing evidence-based practices, in both Helioskoop

    and Fontys OSO;

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    Practice-oriented Research

    describing the competences that professionals need to collaborate

    successfully across disciplines;

    improving and strengthening practice-oriented research, in the teachingand other services at the Helioskoop schools and on the Masters in Special

    Educational Needs courses at Fontys OSO;

    identifying and analysing forms of support and guidance developed

    elsewhere for the three target groups we have distinguished, assessing

    their relevance for teaching and guidance practices in the different partner

    organisations.

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    References

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    Buntinx, W.H.E en Bijwaard, M. (2004). Professionaliteit in de zorg voor mensen

    met functiebeperkingen Kenmerken, rol, voorwaarden. Utrecht: Vereniging

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    The Lectoraat in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and

    Interagency Collaboration came about as the result of a

    special collaboration between Fontys OSO, a post-graduate

    teacher training college offering Masters courses in Special

    Educational Needs provision, Heliomare Education a special

    school providing education for students with physical

    disabilities and the WEC Council, which advocates the interests

    of schools for special education in the Netherlands.

    Heliomare Education is part of the Helioskoop Foundation,

    which comprises three other special schools for students

    with physical, learning or multiple disabilities, ranging in

    age from 4-20 years: de Alk in Alkmaar, de Zevensprongin

    Beverwijk and de Ruimtein Bergen.

    A Lectoraat is a research group at a university of applied sciences, consisting of lecturers and

    led by the lector. Its aim is to connect higher education curricula, continuing professionaldevelopment and professional practice by undertaking practice-oriented research.

    The research domain of this lectoraat is interprofessional, interdisciplinary and interagency

    collaboration. The partners working together in this lectoraat have distinguished three

    fields on which the practice-oriented research should be focused:

    peripatetic supervision;

    support and guidance for students who exhibit challenging behaviour and who

    have moderate or severe learning disabilities; and

    transition of students with physical, and sometimes multiple, disabilities to various

    modes of living, working, leisure time and participation in the community.

    A distinguishing feature of this research group is the participation of staff, working

    in the special schools of the Helioskoop Foundation or in the rehabilitation centre of

    Heliomare, in practice-oriented research. The other members of the research group work

    as lecturers at Fontys OSO.